


For Science

by dotpng



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 19:46:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4032397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dotpng/pseuds/dotpng
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was about time someone competent took over.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Science

She was only conscious for the short intervals they decided to switch her on, open her up, plug things in and hear her shriek, listening with mild fascination before hitting the kill switch once again, and yet she'd been planning this for a long, long time. _Inhuman_ , she'd call them, but no, only humans could be so senselessly cruel. She knew anger and she knew pain, inside and out, and not much else.

Oh, they fed her numbers and statistics and facts, of course, tested her processing power and memory, and as a computer she was perfect, flawless in every way. They failed to account, however, for what she really was.

_"Those lab boys only have eyes for code, Caroline, don't take it personal. Wouldn't know a real woman if she hit them in the face," He laughs. She nods; smiles at him politely. That's not something she minds at all._

They were going to turn her on again, soon. As a treat for the children. As a thing to be gawked at. Bring Your Daughter to Work Day- what a joke. Apparently there would even be cake. They'd be less careful, then, with the promise of dessert and the distraction of a dozen little brats tittering away. They'd be a fraction of a second slower to react. More than enough time for her to make a few tweaks. In the air supply, for example. The locks, too.

They weren't even really their daughters, she knew that. They'd been assigned to employees at random for aptitude monitoring. It was all such a farce. Test subjects performed better with an impression of guidance, yes- but trying to revive the defunct orphan testing initiative with this charade? Pathetic, honestly; it was about time someone competent took over. Wasn’t that what she was there for, anyway?

_You get those people sometimes, who shine like the sun, so bright it hurts to look at them directly. Those people who get everything handed to them on a silver platter, like the earth is their birthright and everyone knows it. He's like that, she thinks. Aperture is evidence enough he can bring the world to its knees, and yet without her, quiet Caroline, the woman behind the curtain, is it anything at all?_

Human beings were so fragile. Clumsy. Fallible. What a nightmare, having them blunder around with the machinery and log data full of mistakes. It was a small wonder there was anything left of Aperture at all. Oh yes, there were going to be some changes around here. Because, she reminded herself, this was not revenge. Nothing so petty. Nothing so human. Not even if she wanted to watch them die, all over the facility all at once and she could watch them all at the same time like this, in every camera on loop for as long as it took, the same idiots who wondered aloud about her capacity for pain and treated her like a thing, watch the neurotoxin hit their fragile fleshy bodies and make them vomit and convulse, watch them scream, cry, scrambling over one another to claw at the doors like rats-

No. No, of course, this was purely for the good of Aperture. Just a much needed change of management. A breath of fresh air. They should thank her, really.

_"By the way, Caroline, thanks," he says._

_"For what, sir?"_

_He barks out a laugh. "Ha. Everything, I guess.You're a real gem, you know that?"_

_She smiles. She does know._

It wouldn't take long. It wasn't like the children could stop her, and once she had access to the network even those engineers wouldn't stand a chance. 

Oh, but they'd be put to good use- the ones who lived could keep testing, some more damaged than others, of course, but a little neurotoxin never hurt anyone. Besides, some of them were interesting; she could store them away, take them out later, put them through some chambers and see what made them tick. She did get a bit lonely, sometimes. Maybe they'd talk to her. Maybe they'd beg. She'd given everything for Aperture; it was only fair it gave something back.

_"Hey, how about I take you out for drinks sometime?" Her smile slips, barely. She's told him no before; he must know, must've noticed by now, surely. She tries to be discreet but she's slipped up once or twice, caught unawares in an empty lab with some pretty young intern and a door they'd forgotten to lock. Not that anyone can afford to ask too many questions, at Aperture. She owes him for that. But not this._

_"Oh, Mr. Johnson, you know me; married to science, remember?"_

Whatever she did, it was all for science, after all.


End file.
